Colorado parents scramble after five Montessori schools announce sudden closure

CBS News

05-02-2025

Guidepost Montessori announced the closure of all Colorado locations next month, leaving 300 families scrambling to find new schools for their children.
Parents are now faced with the challenge of finding care with limited time and resources.
Guidepost Montessori families across five schools in the Denver metro area received the devastating email Monday afternoon.
The Parker location email reads in part: "Despite our best efforts to sustain operations, and after a recent and thorough review of our operational costs, the difficult decision has been made to close Guidepost Montessori at Parker effective March 7th. We regret that we are unable to provide more notice, and we truly wish we could."
Nora Johnson's child attends the school in Aurora.
"It was totally out of the blue," said Johnson, a whose daughter had started to thrive in her Montessori environment.
"They're leaving us in pretty dire straits. We're dual income, but neither of us can stop working given the housing crisis."
Despite the refund of their deposit, the short notice has left families feeling unprepared and uncertain about their next steps. The closure leaves parents with just a few weeks to find new arrangements in an already challenging environment, where waitlists for quality programs often stretch months or even years.
"We were on three different waiting lists when I was pregnant with my daughter," said Nora. "I was laughed at by four different day cares for not calling when we conceived."
For many parents, the emotional toll of the closure is just as significant as the logistical burden.
"The teachers are so loving and caring. It's sad that my daughter isn't going to be with the teachers that she's come to know and trust," said Cait, whose daughter has been at Guidepost Montessori since she was 4 months old. "Now we're given four weeks to try to find that that same availability and also aligning with the values and the care that we want for our child."
Guidepost says the closures are not reflection of any failure or lack of effort on the part of school leadership or staff. Guidepost says if this could have been avoided, it absolutely would have.
Over the last year, Guidepost has closed schools in Oregon, Virginia and Oklahoma.
In a statement to CBS Colorado, Guidepost Montessori says:
"A lot of the measures we took to survive COVID-19 and the labor market crisis of the past four years caught up to us in a big way in 2024. Our organization struggled to raise the capital necessary to support our schools, the majority of which were still recovering, and suffering major losses. At many schools, we were running losses of $50,000+ per month that our creditors were no longer willing to subsidize, and we've had to figure out how to manage. In some cases, our landlords have been able to help us navigate these difficulties. They have generously provided rent relief, or renegotiated lease terms, in order to help an individual school to overcome its challenges and reach a point of financial sustainability. In other cases, that hasn't been possible."
Its website lists several schools around the country as "coming soon." Including a location in Greenwood Village, which the company says it did not open.
Guidepost Montessori says it is fully committed to making these last few weeks as positive and supportive as possible. They remain grateful to its school leaders and teachers who are leading this transition on the ground.
They will provide resources to help parents talk with their children about this change, transfer their records and explore other schools in the area.
"As a parent, I'm crushed for her, but I know kids are resilient," said Cait. "It's made us question what we want in a school, and we'll be much more cautious about choosing where we send her next."